CHAPTER 7
It’s Amritham
A celebrated dancer, choreographer, scholar, motivational speaker, and former senior railway officer Dr. Jayant has spent a lifetime building resilience through dedication and hard work. When diagnosed with cancer, she relied on that strength to face the challenge with courage and determination.
Her experiences are captured in her new memoir, Dancing with Joy (Garuda), where she reflects on her journey through art, adversity, and healing. Through personal stories and life lessons, the book shows how passion can inspire strength, healing, and purpose, offering valuable insights for young artists, parents, and anyone navigating life’s challenges.
Book excerpt – Pg 149-152
In 2006, a short phone call from Mr. Yagnaraman went thus: “Ananda, this year the committee has decided to confer the Nrithya Choodamani on you”; one phone call I won’t easily forget.
I received the Nritya Choodamani in December 2006, at Chennai, in a glittering function, with family and friends in attendance. It was a huge approbation of my continuing growth as a performer in the field of Bharatanatyam.
On 26 January 2007, I got an early morning call on the landline phone. The caller was a senior writer, Mr. Srinivasan, from Chennai. “Congratulations,” he said. “Thank you, Maama,” I said, thinking that an article he had written about my programme had been published. “Congratulations on receiving the Padmashri,” he continued. I couldn’t believe my ears! Jayant rushed out to get the newspapers. Quickly freshening up I rushed downstairs to bow to my Ganesha in my Puja room.
Phone calls started pouring in. I was still not sure that the news was correct, until I received a call at 8.00 am from Rashtrapati Bhavan, congratulating me. Telegrams from the Home Minister and letters and calls from around the world followed. I was deeply grateful to my Gurus, my family, but I missed Amma the most. In March of 2007, my family and I went to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, where I was conferred the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of the country, by the President of India. What an honour it was! I received it from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalamji, someone I deeply admired, and that was extra special.
Later, I also received the Kalarathna, the Andhra Pradesh state award in 2008, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for Bharatanatyam for 2009. 2008 also saw me featured as one of the Top Ten stars of Dance in India by Attendance – The Dance Annual. The 2000s were wonderful, with two state and two national awards. I was grateful to the Universe.
In December 2007, we were presenting our production, Sri Rama Namam – Entha Ruchi Ra, on the music and the bhakti of Bhakta Ramadas at the Krishna Gana Sabha, at their annual dance festival. Just a few minutes before I went on stage, I was given an envelope
by Sri Yagnaraman. The letter inside invited me to be the Natya Kala Conference convenor for two years, 2008 and 2009.
Whoa! This was huge. I think I floated on stage that day. As a Nrithya Choodamani awardee, I was now invited to ideate, curate and convene a week-long conference on all things dance, as the convenor of the 28th and the 29th Natya Kala Conferences (NKC).
The NKC is one of the most significant dance conferences in the country, with dancers of classical Indian dance from across the world making a beeline to attend this conference, to listen and learn from the best in the field. With lectures, demonstrations, panel discussions, paper presentations, and live performances, the NKC has come to mean the very crucible of Indian dance scholarship. Held every year in the last week of December, the NKC is a cultural landmark, as it brings together dancers, teachers, choreographers, dance enthusiasts, scholars, rasikas, writers, commentators and scholars, to deliberate on aspects and concerns of the field of dance. Seeking to take art beyond mere performance, and to understand the intellect, grammar, and spirit of dance, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, under Yagnaraman, started the Natya Kala Conference in 1981. First convened by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, herself a scholar of dance, this conference broke new ground in dance research, historiography, dance pedagogy, and the inter-relationship of the various performing arts. Over the next nearly three decades, renowned names in the firmament of dance had been invited by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, to don the mantle of convenor of the Natya Kala Conference for a period of two years, thus ensuring a scintillating variety of thought and approaches to dance research. Some of the leading lights of dance had chaired the conference – Sonal Mansingh, CV Chandrashekar, Dhananjayan, Chitra Visweswaran, Sudha Rani Raghupathy, Bharati Shivaji and others.
It was now my turn to be the convenor. It was already the end of August 2008, and I had just three months to get everything going, from the concept and theme to the final week-long presentation itself. From August to December 2008, I also had to undergo the rest of my chemotherapy sessions, as well as the radiation therapy that was on the anvil.
I told myself, and all at home that I was going to make this a stunning stand-out NKC, even as I dealt with cancer treatment. With a tight deadline of just three months, I dived straight into it.
( Extracted with due permission from author, publisher)
